the "flesh school" (Nikutai-ha) of postwar writers. Over the course of the 1950s, and especially after the Communist Party's passive stance during the 1960 Anpo protests against the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, many writers and critics became disillusioned with the JCP. However, Noma remained committed to Marxist ideology at that time, and his 1961 novel Waga tō wa soko ni tatsu (lit. "My tower stands there") was criticized by literary critics such as Takeo Okuno, Kōichi Isoda, and Takaaki Yoshimoto for being too openly political. However that summer, Noma joined a group of writers and critics in issuing a blistering criticism of the Communist Party's cultural policies, and in December 1961, at the 10th Congress of the New Japanese Literature Association (Shin Nihon Bungakkai), Noma read aloud another statement criticizing the JCP's policies and calling for "a new relationship between politics and literature." These criticisms proved unacceptable to the party, and ultimately contributed to Noma's expulsion from the JCP in 1964. In 1971, Noma completed what is considered his masterpiece, Seinen no wa (lit. "Circle of youth"), which he had begun writing in 1948 and had taken him 24 years to complete. This lengthy 5-volume work, intended to embody Noma's "Total Novel Theory" (zentai shosetsu riron), was awarded the Tanizaki Prize for 1971 as well as the Lotus Prize for Literature the following year. Among other later works, Shinran (1973) expounded Noma's thoughts on religion, and Sayama saiban (1976) considered discrimination against Burakumin as exemplified in the Sayama incident of 1963. Noma died of cancer in Tokyo in 1991. Selected works 1946: Dark Pictures (Kurai e) 1947: A Red Moon in Her Face (Kao no naka no akai tsuki) 1948: Feeling of Disintegration (Hōkai kankaku) 1952: Zone of Emptiness (Shinkū chitai) 1961: Waga tō wa soko ni tatsu 1971: Seinen no wa 1973: Shinran 1976: Sayama saiban Translations (selected) Adaptations Zone of Emptiness was adapted into a film in 1952, directed by Satsuo Yamamoto. See also Japanese literature The First Generation of Postwar Writers References Citations Sources cited 1915 births 1991 deaths 20th-century Japanese writers People from Kobe Japanese Marxist writers Kyoto University alumni Japanese Marxists Japanese communists